Reflections on Child Safeguarding and the 1st Junior Australian Kendo Championships

July 2026

In the post-event milieu of packing up, paperwork, and photographs, I have been reflecting on the hopeful future of junior kendo in Australia. Just over a week ago, I had the privilege in my capacity as National Child Safeguarding officer to help plan and attend a milestone event in Australian Kendo. 

My sister used to work professionally as a stage manager for an elite opera company. 

A while ago she talked about a production that incorporated both open flames and water into the set design. Each element individually onstage requires safety protocols; both together is another level. To make this possible, both she and the other production team members had to obtain special permits and licences, undergo specialist training, prepare risk assessments, coordinate with emergency services and rehearse incident response management scenarios. This all took place before the performers even took their marks on the stage. The audience never saw this work and only ever saw the artistry unfold.

I recently learned of an interesting coincidence in Japanese. The word こうけん (“kouken”) is a homophone that refers to “contribution” or “service” (貢献) but is also a term used in Nōh theatre to describe the “invisible” stage managers (後見)who oversee performances and mitigate disaster by fixing costumes, broken props, or forgotten lines. Much like this dual metaphor (and my sister’s recollections of onstage fire and water), child safeguarding can be expressed in the same way.

When done well, child safeguarding should seem almost invisible and assumed as default practice. Competitors and their families should remember their matches rather than the wristband system or the emergency response plans. 

The 1st Junior Australian Kendo Championships (“JAKC”) was an event that felt truly joyful where competitors, family and officials held genuine smiles. Children also serve as a reminder to grownups about the importance of play; an impromptu lunchtime basketball game featuring competitors in hakama quickly became one of the weekend's lighter moments and perfectly captured the spirit of the event. To have juniors ask, “Do I get to have more matches?” and being able to answer “yes” is the best kind of feedback anyone could ask for.

Providing those additional opportunities was not accidental; it reflects months of planning to design a competition format that balanced meaningful competitive experience with participant wellbeing. Children's competitions should not simply be smaller versions of adult competitions. Young people are still developing physically, emotionally and cognitively, and competition should recognise and support those differences. This required careful consideration of junior-specific shiai regulations, match formats and safeguarding measures. Every decision was guided by a simple objective: maximise opportunities for participation while ensuring the experience remained safe, fair and enjoyable for every competitor.

The inaugural JAKC demonstrated what is possible when people work together behind the scenes. One of the strengths of the Australian kendo community is the willingness of its members to contribute their expertise. We have many members who contributed expertise in technical matters, administrative matters, medical advice (or all the above) who all created an environment where children could compete with confidence. This included planning meetings, risk assessments, policy creation and review, accreditation checks, and volunteer briefings. Our experienced shimpan also embraced the junior-specific guidelines developed for the event, applying both technical excellence and thoughtful judgement throughout the weekend. These efforts are rarely the part that receives public attention, but they are essential to creating an environment where young people can participate safely and confidently. The success of these plans should be measured ultimately by the opportunities they create for others. It is important therefore to value the time and effort of these individuals who freely give their time and effort as a truly precious intangible organisational asset. 

Australian Kendo has every reason to be proud of what was achieved over the weekend. Beyond the medals and results, we created an event where children felt welcome, challenged, supported and, most importantly, wanted to keep competing.

As Australian Kendo continues to grow, I hope the JAKC becomes remembered not only as the first standalone junior national championship, but as the event that established the standard for how junior competitions can be delivered: technically excellent, inclusive, child-centred and supported by a community working together.

References:

Nihongo Master. (2026). Dictionary: kouken.

https://www.nihongomaster.com/japanese/dictionary/word/26869/kouken

The Noh. (2024). Noh terminology: Kōken.

https://db2.the-noh.com/edic/2008/07/koken.html